TD Bank to expand in growing South Florida

With South Florida growing faster than most of the nation, TD Bank is expanding here.

The bank will open a branch Feb. 22 at 1 N. State Road 7 in Plantation and another in the spring in Pembroke Pines, said President and CEO Michael Pedersen.

South Florida is in "the early stage of a more robust economy," Pedersen said. "I think it's definitely looking up."

TD Bank's economists project that the economies in Broward and Palm Beach counties will grow this year at about 3.5 percent vs. the national average of 2.7 percent, Pedersen said. Next year, the two counties' economies should expand by about 4 percent compared with the national average of 3.1 percent, said Michael Dolega, senior economist for the TD Bank Group.

"I have no doubt South Florida will outperform the rest of the nation over the next two years," Dolega said.

The rate of payroll increases in the two counties also have outpaced the nation's in the last few months – 2.4 percent vs. 1.7 percent, Dolega added. So have South Florida housing prices, he said.

"It's a remarkable achievement," given that South Florida suffered more during the Great Recession than the rest of the nation, Dolega said.

TD Bank wants to be in such a high-growth area, CEO Pedersen said. The bank's strategy is to focus on metro areas with "good long-term prospects for growth," Pedersen said.

As a result, three of the bank's five branches opening this year in in South Florida – two in Broward and one in Miami-Dade, said spokeswoman Martha Gaston. TD Bank now has 82 branches in South Florida.